Magical realism and ballroom dancing
Sep. 1st, 2014 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieA Rumor of Peace
This episode got me right in the gut, especially the ending when the helicopter came in and the looks on everyone's faces as they realized the war hadn't ended. Oh, all of you.
I loved Frankie and Beckett working together to put on the pirate radio station, though, and the scene where they spread the rumor with brass instruments and honking bike horns and impersonations was fantastic. Love love love, and want to see them run this pirate station again.
I adored Lila telling McMurphy that everyone calls her "St. McMartyr, of the Order of Perpetual Duty." Because it's so true. Sad, but true.
And of course I enjoyed McMurphy and Richard being cynical holdouts (for a while), and this:
"I can remember the first time I saw you. Orientation lecture--you were asleep. I assumed it was a sign of disrespect for authority. I think that's when I first fell for you. Beauty, brains, and anarchy in one swell package."
asdfghjkl!!!!
Except nothing comes of it! I don't understand! How do you let a line like that go by and have no reaction whatsoever??
Arrrrggghhh, you two. You will be the death of me.
I also don't really get why McMurphy said not to ask for her address, not to write, not to try and have any communication after they get back home. She complains about the world not caring about them, forgetting about them, not understanding, and she wants to cut ties with the one person who probably understands what she went through the best? Yeah, yeah, Colleen McMurphy does self-sacrificing like no one else, but this seems extreme even for her.
Also...did she imply that she thought she and Richard were soulmates? Because that whole "We should come up with a signal so we'll recognize each other in the next incarnation" / "We don't need to, we recognized each other here" exchange sounds an awful lot like it's implying just that.
Warriors
There is some possibility that this one left me a sniffling mess between the scene in the morgue with McMurphy and Beckett where he talks about souls fluttering around the ceiling waiting for the bodies to catch up, Richard giving McMurphy her bronze star and commending her passion for all human life, and McMurphy and Vinnie waiting with Gil while he died. Oh, God. This show. How does it keep getting better?
The Thanks of a Grateful Nation
On the one hand, it's nice to see one of the characters at home after their tour, trying to figure out what to do with his life. On the other hand, Dodger's testosterone attacks get so old so quickly. The random flares of punching walls and overturning tables he's been subject to this season have detracted from his initial silence and anhedonia, which was far more interesting.
Skylark
I admit, I cheated and watched this via Certain Places weeks ago. Let's be real, if an episode synopsis includes the words "magical realism" and "ballroom dancing," I will SCOUR THE INTERWEBS until I find a way to watch it.
And it does indeed live up to the promise inherent in that description! Ruby and Ernie are the perfect touch of ghostly magic, especially after a long run of really depressing episodes. I loved the random dancing, the magically appearing distributor cap, magically appearing fishing gear, magically appearing record player... And they just had lovely scenes with everyone, from Richard and McMurphy to Beckett to KC, curling up in bed around her and Ernie telling her a bedtime story because she'd never had one told to her as a child. So lovely.
And heh:
McMurphy: Are you always this optimistic?
Ruby: I suppose I am. Ha! Must get on people's nerves, huh?
I love McMurphy being curious, too. "How come their wardrobe is so large and their suitcases are so small?" And of course she figures it out. And then she and Ruby get to talk around it in the best tradition of Northern Exposure's oblique conversations, and Ruby gets to say the following beautiful line:
"The other night, with all those men, you were their angel. Dr. Richard was their angel. And in the morning, for some of them, Beckett became their angel! The world's full of angels!"
That follows really nicely from McMurphy and Vinnie ushering Gil into death in "Warriors."
Annnnd of course, I enjoyed every moment McMurphy and Richard interacted, from theirlovers' quarrel incessant bickering to their dance at the end.
Richard: "And you steal the olives from my martinis."
McMurphy: "You don't even like olives."
SO. MARRIED.
And also like old married couples, they know right where to hit to cause maximum pain, from McMurphy's barb about how it would be nice if Richard cared as much about his patients as he did about his golf game, to his comment that it's easier to care, or maybe go through the motions of caring, for wounded soldiers who'll be evac'ed out tomorrow than it is for people she sees every day.
That's obviously a pretty self-interested criticism, because we've seen this season that he cares about her, and presumably would like her to care about him in the same way. I have to admit this comment annoys me, though, because like with Vinnie's gifts in "China Men," it expects something of her, and McMurphy is kind of helpless in the face of expectation and duty. I'd rather watch her give of her own free will than be expected to give.
(That said, Richard is probably the only one around to whom she would actually say no, so there's that, at least. Maybe it circles back to free will in his case.)
Anyway, thorny issues of expectation aside, I of course enjoyed that his parting remark is "I may never have what they have, but it won't be for want of trying. Who will you be dancing with in forty years?" And then they dance together at the end of the episode. Hey, McMurphy, if you're looking for commitment from someone you actually love...
And I enjoyed all the other parallels drawn between McMurphy/Richard and Ruby/Ernie, like both couples dancing to the same song, or things like this:
Ernie: Women.
Richard: Yeah.
Ernie: Hell of a curiosity they have.
Richard: You too?
I love it when such juxtapositions allow me to make shippy inferences!
This episode got me right in the gut, especially the ending when the helicopter came in and the looks on everyone's faces as they realized the war hadn't ended. Oh, all of you.
I loved Frankie and Beckett working together to put on the pirate radio station, though, and the scene where they spread the rumor with brass instruments and honking bike horns and impersonations was fantastic. Love love love, and want to see them run this pirate station again.
I adored Lila telling McMurphy that everyone calls her "St. McMartyr, of the Order of Perpetual Duty." Because it's so true. Sad, but true.
And of course I enjoyed McMurphy and Richard being cynical holdouts (for a while), and this:
"I can remember the first time I saw you. Orientation lecture--you were asleep. I assumed it was a sign of disrespect for authority. I think that's when I first fell for you. Beauty, brains, and anarchy in one swell package."
asdfghjkl!!!!
Except nothing comes of it! I don't understand! How do you let a line like that go by and have no reaction whatsoever??
Arrrrggghhh, you two. You will be the death of me.
I also don't really get why McMurphy said not to ask for her address, not to write, not to try and have any communication after they get back home. She complains about the world not caring about them, forgetting about them, not understanding, and she wants to cut ties with the one person who probably understands what she went through the best? Yeah, yeah, Colleen McMurphy does self-sacrificing like no one else, but this seems extreme even for her.
Also...did she imply that she thought she and Richard were soulmates? Because that whole "We should come up with a signal so we'll recognize each other in the next incarnation" / "We don't need to, we recognized each other here" exchange sounds an awful lot like it's implying just that.
Warriors
There is some possibility that this one left me a sniffling mess between the scene in the morgue with McMurphy and Beckett where he talks about souls fluttering around the ceiling waiting for the bodies to catch up, Richard giving McMurphy her bronze star and commending her passion for all human life, and McMurphy and Vinnie waiting with Gil while he died. Oh, God. This show. How does it keep getting better?
The Thanks of a Grateful Nation
On the one hand, it's nice to see one of the characters at home after their tour, trying to figure out what to do with his life. On the other hand, Dodger's testosterone attacks get so old so quickly. The random flares of punching walls and overturning tables he's been subject to this season have detracted from his initial silence and anhedonia, which was far more interesting.
Skylark
I admit, I cheated and watched this via Certain Places weeks ago. Let's be real, if an episode synopsis includes the words "magical realism" and "ballroom dancing," I will SCOUR THE INTERWEBS until I find a way to watch it.
And it does indeed live up to the promise inherent in that description! Ruby and Ernie are the perfect touch of ghostly magic, especially after a long run of really depressing episodes. I loved the random dancing, the magically appearing distributor cap, magically appearing fishing gear, magically appearing record player... And they just had lovely scenes with everyone, from Richard and McMurphy to Beckett to KC, curling up in bed around her and Ernie telling her a bedtime story because she'd never had one told to her as a child. So lovely.
And heh:
McMurphy: Are you always this optimistic?
Ruby: I suppose I am. Ha! Must get on people's nerves, huh?
I love McMurphy being curious, too. "How come their wardrobe is so large and their suitcases are so small?" And of course she figures it out. And then she and Ruby get to talk around it in the best tradition of Northern Exposure's oblique conversations, and Ruby gets to say the following beautiful line:
"The other night, with all those men, you were their angel. Dr. Richard was their angel. And in the morning, for some of them, Beckett became their angel! The world's full of angels!"
That follows really nicely from McMurphy and Vinnie ushering Gil into death in "Warriors."
Annnnd of course, I enjoyed every moment McMurphy and Richard interacted, from their
Richard: "And you steal the olives from my martinis."
McMurphy: "You don't even like olives."
SO. MARRIED.
And also like old married couples, they know right where to hit to cause maximum pain, from McMurphy's barb about how it would be nice if Richard cared as much about his patients as he did about his golf game, to his comment that it's easier to care, or maybe go through the motions of caring, for wounded soldiers who'll be evac'ed out tomorrow than it is for people she sees every day.
That's obviously a pretty self-interested criticism, because we've seen this season that he cares about her, and presumably would like her to care about him in the same way. I have to admit this comment annoys me, though, because like with Vinnie's gifts in "China Men," it expects something of her, and McMurphy is kind of helpless in the face of expectation and duty. I'd rather watch her give of her own free will than be expected to give.
(That said, Richard is probably the only one around to whom she would actually say no, so there's that, at least. Maybe it circles back to free will in his case.)
Anyway, thorny issues of expectation aside, I of course enjoyed that his parting remark is "I may never have what they have, but it won't be for want of trying. Who will you be dancing with in forty years?" And then they dance together at the end of the episode. Hey, McMurphy, if you're looking for commitment from someone you actually love...
And I enjoyed all the other parallels drawn between McMurphy/Richard and Ruby/Ernie, like both couples dancing to the same song, or things like this:
Ernie: Women.
Richard: Yeah.
Ernie: Hell of a curiosity they have.
Richard: You too?
I love it when such juxtapositions allow me to make shippy inferences!
